Nottinghamshire’s Jake Ball hopes to put himself back in the frame for England’s Test team ahead of this winter’s Ashes series with some eye-catching Specsavers County Championship performances – starting against Derbyshire today.
The Mansfield-born seamer was keen to add to his three Test caps when he suffered a knee strain during the Club’s pink ball, day-night game with Kent at Trent Bridge at the end of June.
“I think how well I do will impact on my England chances.”
That ruled him out of the first Test against South Africa at Lord’s in early July, having already missed Notts Outlaws’ Royal London One-Day Cup victory over Surrey at the same venue.
But Ball is now on his way back to full fitness – as outlined by three-wicket hauls in the NatWest T20 Blast matches against Worcestershire Rapids and Derbyshire Falcons – and is now ready to impress in four-day cricket too.
“I definitely feel I am getting there,” he said. “I was a little bit tentative bowling in the first couple of matches, but I’ve been working with James Pipe and I feel in the last couple of games I’m getting back to where I want to be.”
“I think how well I do will impact on my England chances. If I bowl well then it puts the ball in England’s court.
“Toby (Roland-Jones) has come in and done really well and Finny (Steven Finn) was picked in the squad for the Test match that is on now.
“For me, it’s all about putting some good performances in and see where that takes me. I need to really put the onus back on them (the selectors).”
Former Welbeck bowler Ball admits that sitting out a key period of the season for both Club and country was hard to take.
“Injuries are part of game and they happen to everyone.”
But, at the same time, he recognises that he has benefited from others being sidelined in the past, just as they have from his setback.
Ball, 26, said: “It was a really frustrating time for me because it was three days before a Lord’s final and seven or eight days before the start of the first Test of the summer when I had a good chance of being in the squad.
“But injuries are part of game and they happen to everyone. I got my first opportunity for England through an injury to another player and so has Toby (to Mark Wood).
“It’s highly likely that I’ll get my next opportunity, if it comes, will be through injury too, so I have to be patient and keep bowling well.”
Like the rest of the Outlaws attack in what has been a high-scoring summer of NatWest T20 Blast cricket, Ball has taken his fair share of punishment from opposition batsmen.
That’s why he’s looking forward to getting back to the traditional format of the game when the action gets underway at the 3aaa County Ground this morning.
“Against Worcestershire I was starting to get my rhythm better, but it’s not always easy to do that in the middle of a T20 game at Trent Bridge where the games have been so high scoring,” he said.
“I’m really looking forward to getting a red ball back in my hand.”
“You can bowl really well in a game and still go for runs. I actually felt I bowled better in the game against Yorkshire but went for a lot more runs!
“It’s not always been the easiest introduction back into my cricket, but I’m really looking forward to getting a red ball back in my hand and swing things back more in favour of the bowler.”
Having won at Derbyshire Falcons in T20 on Friday night ahead of playing Durham Jets at Trent Bridge yesterday, it’s a busy week for the Club.
And, as Ball points out, it’s an important one too. He said: “We have five games left in the Championship and if we could win the next two, then that would really put us in a strong position.
“In fact, this game is a big one in a big week. We’ve done really well in the T20, so it could keep us in the hunt for all three trophies, which would be a great position to be in.”
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